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Sam Bruce, Deputy Editor, espn.com.au
SYDNEY — The Wallabies’ World Cup preparations are officially in tatters.
Eddie Jones’ side slipped to a second straight defeat in the veteran coach’s second stint at the helm on Saturday night, this time to an inspired Argentina. With only back-to-back Bledisloe Cup games to come, and a date with hosts France on the eve of the tournament’s kick-off, the grains of sand are dropping at Usain Bolt-like speed in Australia’s World Cup egg timer.
Again, it was the Wallabies’ discipline that let them down in Sydney. They finished on the wrong end of the penalty count yet again – this time 10-14 – but making matters worse was the fact that it cost them a victory they looked to have snatched from the jaws of defeat.
Just when they looked to have the game won, or at least have the ability to close it out at the death, a somewhat dubious TMO referral for a Quade Cooper high tackle, gave Argentina one last shot to send their small but boisterous pocket of fans at CommBank Stadium home happy. The visitors obliged, with No. 8 Juan Martin Gonzalez diving over from close range to secure the 34-31 win.
The try broke the hearts of Wallabies fans, who thought their team had done enough when Mark Nawaqanitawase intercepted the ball five metres from his own line and went the distance untouched to score under the posts. Jones also later quipped his players needed surgery on some “broken hearts” – but Australia’s game needs a complete physical.
If there was one positive for Australia on Saturday night it was Nawaqanitawase, but he received little help in another muddled Wallabies performance that Jones said lacked accuracy in execution and its decision-making.
The honeymoon period may have been granted a stay of execution after last week’s 43-12 loss to the Springboks in Pretoria, at least to see what Australia could manage on home turf. But it is certainly well and truly over now — the Wallabies coach has a fully blown crisis on his hands, and one made worse by what looks to be a serious shoulder injury to centre Len Ikitau.
Not that Jones would admit it is time for alarm.
“One hundred percent confident, mate,” Jones replied when asked whether he thought he could turn the team around. “At the moment, it seems like we’re miles away from we need to be. But all this is going to make us harder and more hungry to get it right.
“We’re a team that needs to change. We know that. And that’s the reason I’m here in the job. It needs to change. We’re not seeing the change in terms of results at the moment, but we’ll see that.”
Ikitau, who scored the game’s opening try — the second straight week the Wallabies had done so — was sent to hospital for scans on his shoulder immediately after the match. His departure in the 18th minute forced the Wallabies into a major reshuffle in midfield with only Carter Gordon offering backline coverage outside of scrum-half Tate McDermott on the bench, and so Ikitau’s exit was always going to cause problems.
Asked on Thursday whether he thought taking a 6-2 split into the game was a risk, Jones fobbed the question off with little respect. The Wallabies coach looks more than a tad foolish now.
The Pumas dominated the first half after Ikitau’s injury, the visitors able to string long phases of possession together and get the Wallabies backpedalling as they exposed the rejigged centre combination of Gordon and Samu Kerevi. They were eventually rewarded for their endeavour when Jeronimo de la Fuente dived over between Rob Valetini and Nic White to tie the game up at 10 apiece after 25 minutes.
While the Wallabies managed to deny the Pumas a further first-half try, a yellow card to Richie Arnold saw Australia go into halftime a man down, albeit after an inspired scrum penalty that ensured scores were left at the break.
But just as it had been in Pretoria seven days earlier, the Wallabies had conceded a mighty share of possession and territory in the first 40 and were again pressured into penalties at the breakdown.
Australia’s discipline didn’t improve after the break either. Almost immediately after the resumption, they invited the Pumas into their half and while winger Rodrigo Isgro was denied by a superb cover tackle from Tom Wright in the right-hand corner, his skipped Julian Montoya was unstoppable on 46 minutes.
That was probably Wright’s only positive involvement of the match, and he was one of several Wallabies to endure a forgettable night, the fullback sure to come under immense pressure if Andrew Kellaway returns to fitness in time for the Bledisloe Cup.
But a piece of Nic White brilliance ensured the Wallabies remained in touch early in the second half, the scrum half picking up from the base of a scrum underneath the Pumas’ posts, catching the visitors back-row napping in the process to score and bring the Wallabies back level at 17-all.
A long-range Emiliano Boffelli penalty took the visitors back out to a three-point lead right on the hour mark, and the visitors then increased that lead nine minutes later as they snaffled the match’s momentum and appeared to set themselves on the path to victory.
Their third try was scored by Mateo Carreras, who ran onto a subtly delayed pass from Pablo Matera, the winger running into a hole and outsprinting Nawaqanitawase to the line for a 27-17 lead.
With 10 minutes to play, having largely dominated proceedings, the Pumas looked destined for another memorable night at CommBank Stadium, the same venue where, in 2020, they had beaten the All Blacks for the first time.
But that try suddenly sparked the Wallabies into action. With replacement Angus Bell making metres in his first run for six months, and Australia finally on the front foot, McDermott found Nawaqanitawase on the short side, the winger putting fellow speedster Marika Koroibete into space and charging down the left touchline. Koroibete then passed back inside for Cooper, who stepped off his left foot only to be brought down just short of the line, but the veteran fly-half’s smart popped pass was swallowed up by Kerevi and there was no stopping the centre from there.
Still trailing 27-24, the Wallabies were in need of some further individual brilliance and again it was Nawaqanitawase who supplied it, the winger this time doing it all himself as he picked off the intercept and sprinted away to score what looked like being the match’s decisive play.
But the Australia’s ill-discipline reared its parasitical head once more, and the Pumas forwards did the rest.
Where to now for Jones and Australia then? Some serious questions need to be asked around selection, and why there is yet to be any improvement in their ruck work and, somewhat incredibly, how they can continue to give away needless and inexplicable penalties.
While Nawaqanitawase’s 76th minute five-pointer almost stole a victory that for much of the match looked beyond them, truth be told Australia’s performance didn’t warrant the result, with the Pumas far more impressive in their continuity, tactical approach and all-round skill execution.
“That’s rugby isn’t it, I suppose” Argentina coach Michael Cheika quipped when asked whether he thought the game was gone with Nawaqanatiwase’s try. “Well, I personally thought he was offside for the intercept, considering there was a couple of other offsides that would have been so marginal… what we were looking for was improvements from last week [loss to the All Blacks].
“What happened last week gives you the agitation and the kindling to get better for the next week and what you want improve. Even if we’d gone down in the end I would have been happy with the improvements, we’ve still got a lot more to improve on.
“But one thing maybe is that Argentina has always [thought] that when they have the wins away, or wins in the Rugby Championship, they’re usually landmark types of things, tonight we were able to find a way to win even though we weren’t playing at our best because we’ve still got a lot of growing to do for where we are going, and that’s how it’s planned. So I liked the way they were able to find a way to do it.”
As well as Wright, the likes of Dave Porecki, Allan Alaalatoa and Arnold should be under pressure to hold their Wallabies spots, while Jones is also going to need to find a solution at outside centre with Ikitau’s World Cup campaign now in serious doubt.
And so too are the Wallabies’ hopes of being the dark horses in France, even from the clearly weaker side of the World Cup draw. While Jones has worked his magic at the global showpiece in the past, it is going to take a miracle to see Australia seriously threaten for a third Webb Ellis Trophy – as they are miles off where they need to be to mix it with the likes of Ireland, France, South Africa and the All Blacks.
“I’ll tell you what, mate, there was probably no one more despondent than me,” Jones said in a typically entertaining press conference where he told journalists to keep the questions coming. “I probably ruined three radios in the coach’s box.
“But I’m also realistic … there’s a team that sits there and sometimes what you’re doing doesn’t come out in performance and it takes another game or one moment in a game, one moment in a game that changes the team, and sometimes you’re not sure when that’s going to come. But if you keep working hard and keep working diligently, and you work on the right things, you get that change.
“The thing that really encouraged me is the diligence of the players. They want to change, they want to be better, they want to be fine ambassadors for Australian rugby but at the moment it’s just not happening. But it will.”
The Wallabies coach has a fortnight to right some of the inherent issues in this Australia team before they hit Melbourne for Bledisloe I. Unfortunately, many of those problems look too deeply embedded — and which are likely to be easily exploited by an All Blacks team that suddenly appears to have its ruthless edge back — for the prospect of an upset Wallabies victory to be even remotely possible.
Australia’s 0-2 record could very soon become 0-4, and then 0-5. Without an abrupt reversal of performance, the Wallabies’ World Cup campaign could be over before it has even begun.